The Brazilian Helen Leite, 25, who died during a flight from Sao Paulo to Dallas, in the United States, on the last Wednesday (2), left Brazil without presenting any symptoms of malaise, told the uncle of the young Carlos Eduardo Zaccarelli Elijah. Helen, who was of Palmital, in the interior of São Paulo, spent the end of year holidays with the family in Brazil and retook to the United States to complete an exchange of a year, which was scheduled to finish in June 2013.

According to him, the results of the first examinations, among them the toxicological, had no change. "The forecast is that the cause death is disclosed in six weeks. But, even with the result pending, the autopsy has already been released to the body of Helen can be brought to the Brazil", says.

My friend was in her flight, sitting really close to her and she said she was asleep and woke up screaming for help. She fell down and kept screaming because she was in pain.. And died pretty quick.. So sad.

Okay, here is something I don't understand: The flight is from Sao Paulo to Dallas, but the diversion after half of the flight is completed is to Houston for a passenger that died. Why? They're saving roughly 1/2 hour by doing this.

Drugs or a blood clot, it has to be one or the other. Something that does not get much coverage is the fact that young women get blood clots very easily from taking birth control pills. Of course the clot does not have to come from the pill.

BCP contain estrogen which increases clotting factors and possibly distorts the lining layer of vessels. Smoking, obesity and family history are also factors that increase risk. Long periods of sitting give stasis in the lower extremities promoting clot formation. When they break loose, the lungs become the body filter = pulmonary embolism. One out of three will die. Almost all can be prevented by taking a single Aspirin and standing to stretch every few hours or doing in seat exercises. Dan Quayle, Serena Williams and Richard Nixon all suffered from PEs related to travel. Hopefully, the old guys up front do the prophylaxis as a routine for flights over a few hours.

Until ruled out by autopsy those would be the first two that come to mind when there is the sudden death of a young health person. Though both of those, along with any type of insult to the brain would of quickly been found during the autopsy. She could of also had a fatal arrhythmia that would never be seen in an autopsy.

We don't know what the state of the cabin was at the time she died. It could have been chaotic. I don't know but I suspect if a balloon of drugs burst in my stomach, it would get ugly pretty quick. The Captain probably took lots of input from the flight attendants. Maybe he/she even called company for advice. Their rules may state "land as soon as possible"--i.e. IAH instead of DFW.

There have been instances of healthy young adults developing deep vein thrombosis (blood clots) on long duration flights. If this blood clot dislodges and blocks a cardiac or pulmonary artery it can be fatal. An athlete died this way when returning to the UK after the Sydney Olympics.

I'd say this was more than likely a drug mule situation in which an improperly-packed "balloon" burst and spilled its toxic contents in her stomach. There's a great movie where this happens, except the mule doesn't die on the plane. "Maria Full of Grace."